1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to television program recommenders, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for displaying television program recommendations.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the number of channels available to television viewers has increased, along with the diversity of the programming content available on such channels, it has become increasingly challenging for television viewers to identify television programs of interest. Historically, television viewers identified television programs of interest by analyzing printed television program guides. Typically, such printed television program guides contained grids listing the available television programs by time and date, channel and title. As the number of television programs has increased, it has become increasingly difficult to effectively identify desirable television programs using such printed guides.
More recently, television program guides have become available in an electronic format, often referred to as electronic program guides (EPGs). Like printed television program guides, EPGs contain grids listing the available television programs by time and date, channel and title. Some EPGS, however, allow television viewers to sort or search the available television programs in accordance with personalized preferences. In addition, EPGs allow for on-screen presentation of the available television programs.
While EPGs allow viewers to identify desirable programs more efficiently than conventional printed guides, they suffer from a number of limitations, which if overcome, could further enhance the ability of viewers to identify desirable programs. For example, many viewers have a particular preference towards, or bias against, certain categories of programming, such as action-based programs or sports programming. Thus, the viewer preferences can be applied to the EPG to obtain a set of recommended programs that may be of interest to a particular viewer.
Thus, a number of tools have been proposed or suggested for recommending television programming. The Tivo(trademark) system, for example, commercially available from Tivo, Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif., allows viewers to rate shows using a xe2x80x9cThumbs Up and Thumbs Downxe2x80x9d feature and thereby indicate programs that the viewer likes and dislikes, respectively. Thereafter, the TiVo receiver matches the recorded viewer preferences with received program data, such as an EPG, to make recommendations tailored to each viewer.
Thus, such tools for recommending television programming provide selections of programs that a viewer might like. Even with the aid of such program recommenders, however, it is still difficult for a viewer to identify programs of interest from among all the options. A need therefore exists for a method and apparatus for displaying television program recommendations in a more efficient manner. A further need exists for a method and apparatus for displaying television program recommendations for a large number of shows in a manner that permits a user to efficiently process the recommendations to identify the best shows of interest.
Generally, a method and apparatus are disclosed for displaying available television programs with an indication of the numerical recommendation score assigned to each program by a television programming recommender. The program and corresponding recommendation score information can be presented to the user, for example, using grids listing the available television programs by time and date, channel and title.
According to a feature of the invention, the numerical recommendation scores associated with each program are also displayed to the user. The numerical recommendation scores can be displayed with each program directly or can be mapped onto a color spectrum or another visual cue, such as a variable size-of-text or rate of blinking, that permits the user to quickly locate programs of interest. The visual cues are then applied to each program in the program grid in accordance with the present invention.
The present invention can also sort the television channels in the program grid according to a normalized recommendation score for the time period being examined. For a given half-hour time interval, the program grid can be sorted directly by the numerical recommendation scores, such that programs with the highest scores appear at the top of the program grid listing. Likewise, for time intervals larger than a half hour, a normalized score can be assigned to each channel for the time period of interest and the program grid can then be sorted based on the normalized scores, such that channels with the highest normalized scores for the time period of interest appear at the top of the program grid listing.